Subscriptions are taking over the world, but it can often be a challenge for smaller e-commerce sites to add and service this new sector on top of their existing business, Upscribe is here to fill that niche for Shopify shops and other e-commerce platforms. We talk with Dileepan Siva, founder and CEO, about what he’s building, the e-commerce landscape, and how to reduce churn and increase loyalty through smarter subscription offerings.
About Dileepan Siva:
Dileepan grew up across three continents and four countries before the age of ten. His dream job growing up was to be the UN Secretary General. After graduating from UC Berkeley and getting an MBA from Harvard, he went on to be an advisor for the US and UN in war-torn countries.
After his time in government and politics, he moved to consulting and tech operations at Ebay, and Twitter, before becoming a founder for himself. Upscribe was founded in 2019 and recently closed a $4M seed round lead by Uncork Capital.
In this episode we discuss:
01:24 The evolution of the subscription economy
03:09 What has caused the shift to subscriptions?
06:13 The technologies that have helped enable subscriptions
08:25 How companies can start into subscriptions
10:27 Why Shopify and CAC has changed the game in e-commerce
12:15 How non-SaaS businesses can implement subscriptions
13:52 Why subscriptions are not just yesterday’s box companies
15:25 What is the best strategy for pricing your subscriptions
17:24 Why bundling is so important to e-commerce
19:21 The importance of data and personalized marketing with subscription
21:18 How companies should think about retention in relation to growth
24:05 Dileepan’s best advice for a company just starting a subscription service
26:18 Targeting data that Upscribe uses to upsell customers
27:22 Why smart subscriptions is a good idea
29:14 The decision to take on funding from Uncork
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CEO of Upscribe, Dileepan Siva, on The Future of the Subscription Economy